Caution first: Nashua needs no rail study yet

EDITORIALMay 10. 2013 1:05AMNashua aldermen would waste taxpayer money if they spent any of it studying commuter rail before the state finishes its own $3.6 million study.

Alderman Daniel Moriarty is pushing for a city rail study. On Monday he chastized skeptical aldermen, calling them illogical and saying they want to "remain ignorant and remain uninformed" about rail in Nashua. No, they want to be responsible.

The state is undertaking its own rail study, ostensibly to determine whether commuter rail is even feasible in New Hampshire. (It is not, as other studies show, and we suspect that this study will be designed to reach the opposite conclusion.) Supposing that New Hampshire's study is objective, there is no reason whatsoever for Nashua to undertake its own study now. If New Hampshire's research concludes that commuter rail will not work here, then the dream is dead. Why would Nashua spend a dime to prepare for a rail line whose existence is dependent on a study not yet begun?

Aldermanic President Brian McCarthy and other aldermen are right to wait and see what the state study concludes. That is not ignorance; it is prudence.